224 PHILIPPINE PALMS 
Pampanga, flowers during the months of February and March. 
It takes about four months for the fruit to ripen. 
THATCHING 
Throughout the Islands, except in regions remote from the 
sea, the leaves of the nipa palm are by far the most commonly 
used material for thatching the light-construction houses in 
which most Filipinos dwell. Nipa shingles are also frequently 
used for the walls of houses. As nipa roofs take fire readily, 
and as a fire in a nipa district spreads with great rapidity and 
can be controlled with difficulty, if at all, the use of this ma- 
terial for thatching has now been prohibited in large parts of 
the city of Manila and other large towns. 
Nipa shingles are made by removing the leaflets from the 
petiole, and doubling back one-third of the length of the leaflet 
over a slender piece of bamboo, placing them so as to overlap. 
They are then sewed in position to form an oblong shingle 
usually about 70 centimeters in length. In Pampanga a woman 
will, at an average, prepare 400 to 500 of these shingles in a 
day, some making as many as 800 a day. The shingles are 
usually tied in bundles of ten, to facilitate handling. 
OTHER USES OF LEAVES 
The leaflets are also used for making raincoats and sun-hats 
(salakéts), coarse baskets, mats, and bags; the midribs for 
making coarse brooms, for tying bundles of rice, and for sewing 
nipa shingles. The petioles serve as fuel, while splints pre- 
pared from the cortex are sometimes used for making baskets. 
The leaflets are used for wrapping a rice confection known 
as suman, as described under Corypha elata. 
SEEDS 
The immature seeds are used for food, their taste and con- 
sistency being similar to that of the flesh of immature coconuts. 
They are sometimes made into a kind of sweetmeat. The mature 
seeds are too hard to be eaten. 
ALCOHOL 
Nipa is very important as a source of alcohol and vinegar, 
and is a promising source of sugar. This subject has been 
extensively investigated by Gibbs * from whose article most 
of the information on this subject is taken. The production 
of proof alcohol in the Philippines exceeds ten million liters 

* Gibbs, H. D., The alcohol industry of the Philippine Islands. Part I. 
Philippine Journal of Science, Section A, Volume 6 (1911), pages 99 to 206. 
